The Justice Department sent an unsigned memo in 2025 declaring its Epstein investigation exhaustive.
The two men at the center of Epstein's financial empire had never once spoken to a federal investigator.
Now those two men are about to find out what "I never knew anything" actually costs.
Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn Built Epstein's Sex Trafficking Money Machine
Darren Indyke was Jeffrey Epstein's personal lawyer. Richard Kahn was his accountant.
Together, they built and maintained the financial infrastructure that kept Epstein's trafficking operation invisible for decades – shell companies, offshore entities, cash arrangements, and payments to young women that federal investigators never once traced back to them.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have now opened a criminal probe into both men, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Investigators have spent recent months scheduling witness interviews and pulling documents tied to both men's work for Epstein – emails and financial records among them.
Both men deny knowing Epstein was engaged in sex trafficking and deny any role in facilitating his crimes. They say no woman ever reported abuse to them directly.
That claim is about to face a federal grand jury.
The DOJ Investigation That Never Questioned Epstein's Inner Circle
The Justice Department described its Epstein investigation as "exhaustive" in a July 2025 memo announcing the government would not bring additional charges beyond Ghislaine Maxwell. That memo went out unsigned.
In March 2026, Indyke and Kahn both sat for depositions before the House Oversight Committee. Under oath, they dropped a bombshell.
Neither man had ever been questioned by federal investigators about Epstein's crimes.
"I've never been questioned by any government authority," Kahn told the committee's deputy chief counsel.
Indyke's answer was nearly identical. "Personally, no. I don't believe I have."
Not in 2019. Not in 2020. Not during the original prosecution that landed Maxwell in federal prison for 20 years. Not ever.
The DOJ was asked why investigators never interviewed two people who worked directly for Epstein for years. The department did not respond.
Senate Democrats sent a letter to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel in December 2025 demanding answers. The letter called the failure to question Indyke and Kahn "inexcusable" and raised the possibility that the DOJ had deliberately steered clear of both men – wary of the leverage their control over Epstein's documents gave them.
The 1953 Trust Executors Standing to Collect 75 Million From the Epstein Estate
The conflict of interest here is staggering.
Indyke and Kahn are not just Epstein's former employees. They are co-executors of his estate and two of its largest beneficiaries. Epstein's secret 1953 Trust – signed two days before his death in a Manhattan federal jail – named Indyke to receive $50 million and Kahn to receive $25 million.
That is $75 million set aside for the two men now managing the estate – and now under federal criminal investigation.
Both men simultaneously serve as the executives distributing victim payments, the defendants in civil lawsuits brought by those same victims, and the primary beneficiaries of the trust they administer. A victims' attorney called it a conflict of interest that is impossible to reconcile.
The estate has paid nearly $170 million to Epstein's victims since his 2019 death, including $121 million through a restitution program and roughly $49 million in additional settlements.
In February 2026, Indyke and Kahn also settled a class-action lawsuit brought by survivors for up to $35 million – without admitting wrongdoing, and with the payment drawn from estate assets rather than their own pockets.
How the Epstein Files and House Oversight Forced a Federal Criminal Probe
A Wall Street Journal investigation published last year detailed how Indyke and Kahn served as officers of Epstein-controlled entities used to obscure where money went, who received it, and why – including cash pulled for Epstein personally, payments routed to young women, and schemes to move foreign nationals across borders. Neither man faced charges after that reporting.
What changed is Congress. The House Oversight Committee has been methodically pulling threads. Indyke's March deposition confirmed the existence of hard drives held by Epstein's private investigators. Those drives are under active congressional scrutiny.
Former President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and billionaire Leon Black all appeared before the committee and claimed ignorance of Epstein's crimes.
Black was subsequently held in contempt of Congress for refusing to produce certain documents.
The DOJ called its investigation exhaustive. The two men who operated Epstein's financial machinery went unquestioned for seven years, collected fees running his estate, and waited on $75 million in inheritance.
The Southern District of New York has seen enough.
Sources:
- Joe Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar, "Federal Prosecutors Open Probe Into Jeffrey Epstein's Executors," Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2026.
- Leo Briceno, "Epstein's Accountant and Lawyer Say DOJ Never Once Questioned Them About His Crimes," Fox News, March 26, 2026.
